Battle for Europe
Allan Little has spent much of the last six months travelling around the European Union - from the oldest members like France and Germany, to the fast-emerging new economies of the east. In this week's Panorama, "Battle for Europe" he argues that Europe is now divided into two rival camps, each with starkly different visions of what the European Union should be and do. They are our closest neighbours and our oldest foes. And two hundred years after Trafalgar we are at each other's throats again. Next month's European Union summit, which will be the culmination of the six month British presidency, will be dominated by an increasingly bitter dispute between Britain and France. The French will insist that Britain give up the rebate, won by Margaret Thatcher in 1984. It is currently worth 3.5 billion pounds a year. France knows that Britain is isolated 24 to 1 on this. Britain has already said that it is willing to negotiate away the rebate - but only in exchange for wide-ranging reform of the European budget as a whole - including the controversial Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). And putting the CAP on the table has touched a raw nerve in France.
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